"The only admissible non-protective implements are a pair of tight-fitting shoes, with thin, flexible soles made of sticky rubber similar to that found on Formula One tyres, which let climbers get a purchase on minuscule foot holds, and “chalk”, a magnesium-carbonate talc used for drying sweaty palms."

In my younger days, I fell 30 feet (10 m) while soloing. It's the grace of God that I'm still here, and not in a wheelchair. Even so, the six weeks on crutches wasn't fun, and neither was learning to walk again afterwards.

"Risking life and limb" sounds exciting, right up until the first time you lose - or until someone else does. Marc Twight (a professional climber) said, "I'm tired of deciding who my friends are by how much it affects me when they die."

Climbing can be great fun. But be careful. Take the risks seriously - you are not immune from them.

"Climbing can be great fun. But be careful. Take the risks seriously - you are not immune from them."

Agreed. Ive been knocked unconscious on a 1000ft wall by falling rock and seriously broke my arm in a 60ft fall on another big wall. Both were many miles in the wilderness but managed to self-evacuate both times.

I am now a "recovering" alpinist, something like Mr Twight, although much less accomplished, who first started seeing the writing on the wall about six years ago and slowly retreated into safer frontcountry climbing pursuits of less and less frequency.

Ive never felt closer to G-d than when climbing....in more ways than one.

It depends. Sometimes the individual pays, sometimes the tax payer pays. Assuming your a dues paying member, one can buy rescue insurance for a given trip thru the American Alpine Club. I believe all the national alpine clubs in Europe offer the same. Generally speaking, if the recreationalist is not found to have behaved recklessly or done something to complicate a rescue effort they are not charged for it, that is what SAR is there for after all. Im guessing you wouldnt ask the same of someone who's house was saved by their local fire dept. Mind you, around these parts (RM's), SAR primaries are usually working for the County Sheriff. We only see the feds get involved if special aircraft are needed from the air force base in the state or if the accident occurs within a national park, which have their own SAR.

In the French alps SAR is run by a special branch of the military police called the Peloton de Gendarmerie de Haute Montagne. In the high season you see their helicopters running up and down the glaciers all day as thousands of people access the high alps.

You can typically pay for insurance when you purchase lift tickets to access most high climbs, also most membership fees in climbing clubs include insurance with coverage throughout the alps and sometimes the rest of the world.

At least in France, if you don't have coverage, you typically get billed for any rescue operations. I've heard more than a few stories of poorly prepared tourists discovering this the hard way, being billed several thousand euro after being plucked from some glacier, assuming they are still alive. Every year, a few don't come back.

Moral of the story, insurance or not, nothing beats the preparedness born of experience and learning from climbers more well versed than you. Just because you can access routes on Mt. Blanc by a 20 minute ride in a cable car doesn't make them any less objectively dangerous. Hire a guide.

Big misconception here that get's brought up after every climbing accident. Climbing accidents get lots of press because they're sexy but the "average taxpayer" doesn't foot any more of the bill than looking for lost hikers and missing boaters. There is an excellent paper running around put out by the National Park Service.

Their are specialized Mountain Rescue Teams that are almost entirely volunteers from the local climbing communities the do most of the work, with a smattering of professional Rangers and Sheriff's who handle the coordination. Often times if helicopters are required it actually comes out of military training budgets. The logic being (and supported by the military) is that either they can spend the training money/time and practice rescuing uninjured military personal or rescues actual injured civilians. Very much a win-win.

Once they get out of the back-country and into the front-country then the usual ambulance/hospital/medical insurance system kicks in.

Curious that you talk only about the United States in this article. Internationally, the US bouldering team is ranked just below the (not very big) Solvenia and just above the (not very hilly) Netherlands. The dominant teams are European, although Japan is also strongly positioned.

The superstar of the world climbing scene is the Czech prodigy Adam Ondra. And of course, the history of the sport had its origins in Britain and the Alps, with the more recent explosion in sports climbing located in France and Spain. May we suggest that your correspondent brings his rock-boots over to Europe one day? He might see some real climbers at work ...

and arguably, the best female climber in the world at the moment is Sasha Digiulian, an American from the DC area. arguably the greatest sport climber ever, Chris Sharma, is from California (he's still just as strong as ever, and he and Ondra are rivals of sorts).
it's quite difficult to argue who the better climber is based on competitions - results are often very fleeting, and a person can finish first one week and not crack the top ten for several comps afterwards. climbing shouldn't be about who's better. it's an intensely personal matter, and my opinion is that most of the "competition" should be against yourself. but that's just me.
with that said, America has produced just as many strong climbers as Europe. and there are just as many world class climbing locations in the US as there are overseas. and, might I add, that even though the sport has its origins in Britain and the Alps, a large portion of the innovations and developments happened in America - mostly in Yosemite during the latter half of the 20th century.

I'm going to have to agree with both of you by saying that both Europe (birth place) and the US (coming of age) have each had their own enormous impact on the history of the sport.

In any case, climbing has always and will always be an extremely international sport. Sharma and Ondra both regularly climb throughout the world, and last I checked Sharma was living in Spain.

The great thing about this sport is the fact that, though the challenge is purely individual, the experience is decidedly communal. Every time I go out I can find myself in some random mountain hut with people from all over the world who share the same passion.

Alas, your correspondent has only ever climbed in Europe. He has yet to relish rock across the pond. And he has seen some of the continent's best climbers at work at some of its best spots.

The simple reason he talked about America is that the figures were easier to come by. Tracking down the number of gyms in the dozen or so European countries where climbing is big turned out to be nigh on impossible. Likewise with regional competitions (national and international contests are less representative of growth as the numbers of competitors are more strictly capped).

Also, the fact that a country lacks hills is inconsequential. It's only a couple of hours' drive from the Netherlands to Fontainebleau. Similarly, one of the world's best snowboarders, at least of competitions go, is a Belgian, Seppe Smits.